I love books. I love tea. I love the way they complement each other so well, and want to share. So here is my blog about books and tea - but with a twist. Instead of a traditional book review, I am going to review a book half way through. I won't know the ending - you may or may not know the ending - feel free to laugh at me for being dead wrong, praise me for being bang on, or just be intrigued enough to see how the book ends for yourself! For a little treat enjoy some tea suggestions! WELCOME!

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Saturday, 17 January 2015

I am Half-Sick of Shadows

Over Christmas this year... uh last year now, I guess... my
plan was to read only Christmas related books; specifically Christmas murder
mysteries. I had about 6 books lined up – but the holidays got in the way, and
I actually only finished one before the New Year. However, since we had a
pretty bad storm here last night and I still have my Christmas decorations up,
I figure I can still get away with reading a couple. One of the ones that I was
most excited about was I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley. This is the 4th
book in a series about Flavia de Luce, a poison obsessed 11 year old girl who solves
murders in her spare time.

I had been hearing about the first book in this series, The
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, for a while before picking up an omnibus of
the first three books. I enjoyed the first one, but I wasn’t in love with it.
It seemed strange to me that an 11 year old would have so much knowledge – I
was ready to be annoyed – but by the second one, I was hooked! Flavia lives in
Bishop’s Lacey, a small British village in the early 1950s. She lives in
Buckshaw, a huge rambling estate, with her father, her 2 terrible sisters, the
cook and her father’s man Dogger. The estate was her mothers, who disappeared
years earlier and is presumed dead – unfortunately there was no will and so now
her father is struggling to make ends meet and keep the house. And that is
where our installment of Flavia’s life begins. Her father has rented out the
estate to a film company and some of the most famous actors are making their
way into town. The famous Phyllis Whyvern and the local vicar have set up a
charity show that happens to coincide with a terrible snowstorm and all of the
villagers end up snowed in at Buckshaw. While everyone is asleep strewn about
the house, Flavia wanders around and of course… finds a body! True to form of
the way this blog is going, the mid-point occurs right after Flavia has found
the body, so that’s where I am now!

It’s funny how the reason that I wasn’t sure I was going to
like these books has ended up being one of the reasons that I love them the
most. Is it believable that an 11 year old would know more about Chemistry than
most people who have studied it their whole adult lives? Nope. Not at all. Not
one tiny little bit. Luckily it doesn’t matter, cause Flavia’s pretty awesome.
She has taught herself chemistry from books that she found belonging to her
great uncle Tarquin and spends most of her time making mischief. Currently she
is concocting a method to trap Santa Claus, while taking some breaks to think
of ways to deviously destroy her sisters. I think that this is one of the
reasons that Flavia works so well as a character; she flits between being a
lonely 11 year old girl, and a brilliant, world dominating genius. It’s
brilliant!

Flavia’s precociousness is not the only reason to love these
books; every character has distinct personalities and characteristics, and even
if they only have small parts they are all fully realized. Flavia’s father
Haviland is a detached man who seems to only have time for his stamps – but is
really in deep mourning for his wife and can be often found sitting in her car
in the garage. Dogger, who fought with Haviland in the war, but came back not
altogether there. He has a fount of knowledge that helps Flavia quite a bit
with her murder investigations, but we’re a little concerned about how he
gained it. Opehlia and Daphne, Flavia’s sisters, while horrible, are not quite
as horrible as Flavia thinks they are… although they are still pretty horrible.
And then we have all the supporting
characters, Mrs. Mullet the cook who can’t cook anything edible, Dieter the
German prisoner of war who decided to stay in Bishop’s Lacey after the war, who
is also in love with Ophelia, and Ned, the potboy at the local hostelry (who is
also in love with Ophelia) and Mary, the landlord’s daughter (who happens to be
in love with Ned). Bishop’s Lacey is the perfect small English town, with all
of the appropriate characters. This is not a small part of my enjoyment of this
series! The mysteries themselves are pretty good too.
Each story focuses on a group of villagers and introduces us to their back
stories and their secrets, and I haven’t been able to guess any of the culprits
so far!

I think a perfect tea for reading this is David's Eggnog caffeine free rooibos. Its a winter limited edition so try to get some soon! I think its the perfect way to curl up with a good Christmas murder mystery and a little eggnog in your eggnog tea.